Indian women to tour Sri Lanka for ICC Women’s Championship

The bottom four sides in the points table -- Sri Lanka, India, West Indies and South Africa -- will look to make up ground on Australia, England, Pakistan and leaders New Zealand in the race to qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2021.

The Indian women’s team will tour Sri Lanka from September 11 to 16 for the third round of the ICC Women’s Championship, cricket’s governing body announced on Monday.

Mithali Raj will lead India women’s team on the tour of Sri Lanka(Reuters)

The bottom four sides in the points table -- Sri Lanka, India, West Indies and South Africa -- will look to make up ground on Australia, England, Pakistan and leaders New Zealand in the race to qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2021.

The ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 finalists, India, are placed sixth with a tally of four points after six matches, both wins coming in a 2-1 series win over South Africa, while Sri Lanka are yet to earn a point after completing their engagements against Pakistan and the West Indies.

Sri Lanka will host India from September 11 to 16 in a series that is important for both teams.

For India, it is a chance to bounce back after their recent defeat at the hands of defending champions Australia at home. While Sri Lanka will look to capitalise on the opportunity to open their account in home conditions while trying to forget their 0-3 series loss to India in the last edition of the tournament.

“We will definitely play to our calibre and potential to help us gain maximum points from our series against Sri Lanka. We look forward to climb up the table and will work together as a team,” India captain Mithali Raj said.

“We have practised well for this series and this series will give us a great opportunity to prepare for the upcoming ICC Women’s World T20 in the West Indies,” Mithali added.

The ICC Women’s Championship sees all eight sides taking on each other in a series of three ODIs home and away. Following the ODI games, there will be crucial preparation for this winter’s Women’s World T20 event with a number of T20Is scheduled.

India vs Sri Lanka:

September 11: 1st ODI, Galle

September 13: 2nd ODI, Galle

September 16:3rd ODI, Katunayake

Squad: Mithali Raj (captain), Tanya Bhatia, Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Dayalan Hemalatha, Mansi Joshi, Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy Smriti Mandhana, Shikha Pandey, Punam Raut, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Poonam Yadav.